On April 26 at about 4 p.m., Fatuma Bulle faced what she describes as the most frightening moment of her life. The Somali Bantu woman and her son, Ahmed, were walking on Burlington's North Champlain Street when a Caucasian man yelled to them, "Go home! Go home!" Bulle ignored Michael Kochalian, but he continued to taunt her and called her a "terrorist," she later told police. Bulle, who is black and wears a head scarf in keeping with Islamic tradition, stood up to him. "What is your problem?" she asked. Kochalian started running toward her. She thought she saw him brandish a gun as he bellowed, "You're my problem." Bulle remembered thinking, "Oh, my God, if I were to die right now, what would happen to my son?" It wasn't Bulle's first life-threatening encounter. She was shot in her right arm during the civil war in Somalia. In the Kenyan refugee camp where she lived for almost a decade, she feared getting raped every time she went to collect firewood. She defied elders in her community when she divorced her abusive husband seven years ago. Still, she called the Old North End confrontation her "worst challenge" because she believed Ahmed's life was in danger. The 7-year-old screamed and hid behind his mother while she extended her arms to shield him. The scene attracted onlookers, but no one intervened until a black man approached. "She's a mother. Stay away from her," the unidentified man told Kochalian. Bulle believes the stranger saved both her and her son. The Huffington Post listed the Burlington incident on its "Islamophobia" tracker, which recorded 124 hostile acts against American Muslims and those perceived to be Muslims between January and April this year. But Bulle is not just a statistic. She has broken out of the patriarchal confines of her Somali Bantu community to become a leader. She draws on her own experience to advocate for underserved groups, especially women whose children have disabilities. "She's a very empathetic, sympathetic person who has concern for her whole community — and especially of women in it," said Sandy Baird, Bulle's friend and former college professor. "It comes from, maybe, her idea that there's a mission that's greater than herself." At Burlington College, Bulle organized a panel discussion in which four Muslim women talked about their experiences wearing the head scarf in the Burlington area. As an employee at the Vermont…
On April 26 at about 4 p.m., Fatuma Bulle faced what she describes as the most frightening moment of her life. The Somali Bantu woman and her son, Ahmed, were walking on Burlington's North Champlain Street when a Caucasian man yelled to them, "Go home! Go home!" Bulle ignored Michael Kochalian, but he continued to taunt her and called her a "terrorist," she later told police. Bulle, who is black and wears a head scarf in keeping with Islamic tradition, stood up to him. "What is your problem?" she asked. Kochalian started running toward her. She thought she saw him brandish a gun as he bellowed, "You're my problem." Bulle remembered thinking, "Oh, my God, if I were to die right now, what would happen to my son?" It wasn't Bulle's first life-threatening encounter. She was shot in her right arm during the civil war in Somalia. In the Kenyan refugee camp where she lived for almost a decade, she feared getting raped every time she went to collect firewood. She defied elders in her community when she divorced her abusive husband seven years ago. Still, she called the Old North End confrontation her "worst challenge" because she believed Ahmed's life was in danger. The 7-year-old screamed and hid behind his mother while she extended her arms to shield him. The scene attracted onlookers, but no one intervened until a black man approached. "She's a mother. Stay away from her," the unidentified man told Kochalian. Bulle believes the stranger saved both her and her son. The Huffington Post listed the Burlington incident on its "Islamophobia" tracker, which recorded 124 hostile acts against American Muslims and those perceived to be Muslims between January and April this year. But Bulle is not just a statistic. She has broken out of the patriarchal confines of her Somali Bantu community to become a leader. She draws on her own experience to advocate for underserved groups, especially women whose children have disabilities. "She's a very empathetic, sympathetic person who has concern for her whole community — and especially of women in it," said Sandy Baird, Bulle's friend and former college professor. "It comes from, maybe, her idea that there's a mission that's greater than herself." At Burlington College, Bulle organized a panel discussion in which four Muslim women talked about their experiences wearing the head scarf in the Burlington area. As an employee at the Vermont…